Wood’s support steady; who will court Washington?

Where the chips fell and what’s to come with a new member on City Council

Absentee and 3rd Ward voters still likeCarol Wood and don’t like the millage increase; a vast majority (90percent) of absentee voters are over 60; more women showed up to votethan men; and voting matters most to those born before 1951.

These are just a few observations of unofficial Lansing results from last week’s election.

City Clerk Chris Swope’s analysis of theelection showed that more females voted than males (55 percent to 45percent) and those aged 60 years and older had the highest turnout ofany age group. Baby boomers also represented 90 percent of all absenteevoters, a group that voted against the millage proposal; in support ofgiving the city permission to sell off a portion of Red Cedar GolfCourse; and for Council candidates A’Lynne Robinson, Jody Washington,Carol Wood and Tom Stewart. (Even though Stewart placed fourth in theat-large contest, he won the second-most amount of absentee votesbehind Wood.)

As for ballot proposals, the charterrevision question was defeated in every precinct and among the majorityof absentee voters, while absentee voters and every precinct approvedthe proposal to give the city permission to sell 12.68 acres of RedCedar Golf Course.

The millage increase, on the other hand,tells a different story by ward. Compared to May (when it failed), itpassed in south Lansing near I-96 and Edgewood Boulevard and also nearthe airport in the 4th Ward. It also picked up absentee support sinceMay: The difference between yes votes and no votes was 828 in May; lastweek it was 545.

Generally, voters in the south andsouthwest portions of the city, as well as in the north and northwestcorner of the city, rejected the millage idea again last week. Theprecincts that supported the millage increase were largely in thecentral region of the city, roughly south of Saginaw Street and northof Holmes Road.

Here’s how candidates fared last week:

1st Ward

1st Ward Councilwoman-elect JodyWashington beat opponent Lynne Martinez among absentee voters and alsoon the outskirts of the ward — and did so by 88 votes. (That’s alandslide compared to the 2007 election, when Eric Hewitt defeatedincumbent Harold Leeman by 17 votes.)

Washington’s support came from Old Town,North Lansing, Groesbeck, Frandor, REO Town and near Potter Park Zoo.Martinez, on the other hand, won the East Side Neighborhood, bounded bySaginaw Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, I-496 and U.S. 127.

The 1st Ward is also the only areapoised to have new Council representation. The dynamic is intriguingbecause outgoing Councilman Eric Hewitt is seen largely as a Carol Woodsupporter and Mayor Virg Bernero opponent. Washington is, for now, seento be at least more open to dialog than Hewitt was, one localstrategist said.

“I think she’s going to be someone goingback and forth between different factions on different votes,” ToddCook, of Main Street Strategies, said last week on “City Pulse on theAir.” “I think Carol and Virg will be courting her heavily as well asother (Council) members. I’m looking forward to not having every votepredetermined before they happen.”

3rd Ward

Voters in southwest Lansing kept theirward representative, A’Lynne Robinson, in office by a 55 percent to 45percent margin. The incumbent Robinson fared better in this race overchallenger Jason Wilkes than she did in 2007 when she ran againstincumbent William Matt. Robinson won that race by only 72 votes, whilethis year she defeated Wilkes by 343. Robinson also lost the absenteevote in 2007, but won it this year.

Though Robinson won the same number ofprecincts as in 2007, she was supported in different areas of the wardthis year. Colonial Village Neighborhood backed Robinson this year, butsupported Matt in 2007. Meanwhile, Wilkes won support in the southeastportion of the ward along Washington Road that Robinson had in 2007.

At-Large

The secret to Carol Wood’s success isthe steady support from older, absentee voters. Wood was widely popularamong absentee voters last week, as she was in the primary, winning theabsentee vote in every ward. Also, voters who supported Washington inthe 1st Ward tended to support Wood: Of the five precincts and absenteevotes Wood led with in the 1st Ward, Washington won four of thoseprecincts and also the absentee vote.

Those hoping to see a RoryNeuner/Derrick Quinney make-up on Council were most evident in the 4thWard. In that northwest section of the city, Quinney and Neuner werethe top two vote getters in seven of 11 precincts. Comparatively, Woodand Quinney were the top two vote getters in the entire 3rd Ward andamong absentee voters. Quinney fared the best out of all fourcandidates in the 1st and 2nd wards, placing in the top two in 14 of 18precincts.

And even though it appeared the LansingRegional Chamber of Commerce realized that by launching more negativeattack ads toward Quinney than Wood for Neuner or Stewart, the tacticfailed because Quinney still ended up placing second and the right toretain his seat.

“The attacks on Derrick Quinney weren’tsomething people believed in,” Cook said last week, referring to thework of the chamber’s front group Greater Lansing Progress. “The thingthey missed out on is you can point to differences in policies,certainly, but to try and impugn someone with a record like Derrick Quinney is just not where people want to go.”